Friday, 4 May 2007

Nick Scott's Tok was good. I thought maybe it struggled a bit with the rather small body of strings, which didn't seem to be able to make themselves heard for a good way into the piece. In terms of length and pace it was good, broken down into movements, almost giving it the feel of a pocket symphony. Favourite points included a scary passage for extremely high strings, and the final movement which was pretty much just for strings. I still find Nick's harmony doesn't always work for my ears, but let that pass.

John De Simone's John De Simone's Violin Concerto was a stunning masterpiece. It was simultaneously completely inside the genre of the violin concerto and outside it looking in with fatherly amusement. The handling of the orchestra and the violin was just incredible, with every romantic gesture in the book lovingly recreated in John's own way.

I guess you can tell I liked it. If there's a professional orchestra in Scotland thinking of doing the Tchaikovsky or the Beethoven or the Bruch or whatever, I suggest they bin it and do the De Simone instead; this one's got legs. (If they get a really good conductor and violinist they just might be able to do as good a job as Gaol Jian and Liam Lynch.)

Finally, Alastair Spratt's Requiem and Postlude. I've liked everything of Al's I've ever heard, and this was a big chunk of that straightforward good music which he writes. A million miles away from the kind of thing I would write, but completely secure within it's own aesthetic.